Deri: Likud-Beiteinu is party of 'Russians and whites'

[Poll_Blind]

[div class="excerpt" style="border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: none; border-radius: 0.3846em 0.3846em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]Deri: Likud-Beiteinu is party of 'Russians and whites' [div class="excerpt" style="border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: none; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3846em 0.3846em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]The tension between Shas and Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu is starting to take on an ethnic cast, with Shas leader Aryeh Deri on Thursday accusing the rival party, "once the party of the people," as he put it, of having turned into "an arrogant and haughty party that represents the Russians and the whites."

Deri made the remarks a day after the campaign staff of Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman started publishing ads in Russian media referring to an agreement to transfer the housing and interior portfolios from Shas to Yisrael Beiteinu, which will "resolve the housing crisis" and pass "necessary reforms without concern for special interests."

Also on Thursday, the ultra-Orthodox weekly Mishpacha published an interview with Lieberman in which he recommended that Shas' Ariel Atias be made tourism minister and Eli Yishai infrastructures minister, since they would be losing their current portfolios - housing and interior, respectively - after the election.

How do you decide who to back in a Shas vs Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu fight?



PB

[oberliner]

1. This is good for the Israeli left

Shas, in the past, has been convinced to join left-leaning coalitions. Perhaps this spat will drive them away from L/B and lead to some electoral surprises.